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Jeremy (song)
"Jeremy" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, with lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by bassist Jeff Ament. "Jeremy" was released in 1992 as the third single from Pearl Jam's debut album Ten (1991). The song was inspired by a newspaper article Vedder read about a high school student who shot himself in front of his English class on January 8, 1991.2 It reached the number five spot on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock Billboard charts. It did not originally chart on the regular Billboard Hot 100 singles chart since it was not released as a commercial single in the U.S. at the time, but a re-release in July 1995 brought it up to number 79.3 The song gained notoriety for its music video, directed by Mark Pellington and released in 1992, which received heavy rotation by MTV and became a hit. The original music video for "Jeremy" was directed and produced by Chris Cuffaro. Epic Records and MTV later rejected the music video, and released the version directed by Pellington instead. In 1993, the "Jeremy" video was awarded four MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Video of the Year.4 Contents hide * 1 Origin and recording * 2 Composition * 3 Lyrics * 4 Release and reception * 5 Music video ** 5.1 Original video ** 5.2 Official video *** 5.2.1 Video summary *** 5.2.2 Controversy * 6 Live performances * 7 Track listing * 8 Chart positions * 9 Accolades * 10 References * 11 External links Origin and recordingedit "Jeremy" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by bassist Jeff Ament. The song's music was written before the band went out on tour in support of Alice in Chains in February 1991.5 Ament on the song: In another interview, Ament stated: Compositionedit "Jeremy" is in the key of A, and intertwines the parallel modes of major and minor frequently. It features prominent usage of Ament's 12-string Hamer bass guitar, which is pivotal to the sound of the introduction and end of the recording. The song starts off with the bassline and quiet harmonic notes also on the 12-string bass, and continues in a sedate vein until after the second chorus, when densely layered guitars and vocals gradually enter. At the end the instruments gradually fade out until all that is audible is a clean guitar and the 12-string bass, like the intro. Both instruments play a descending minor key melody, fading out with one single note.[citation needed] Lyricsedit "Jeremy" is based on two different true stories. The song takes its main inspiration from a newspaper article about a 15-year-old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle from Richardson, Texas who shot himself in front of his teacher and second period English class of 30 students on the morning of January 8, 1991.2 In a 2009 interview, Vedder said that he felt "the need to take that small article and make something of it—to give that action, to give it reaction, to give it more importance."7 Delle was described by schoolmates as "real quiet" and known for "acting sad."2 After coming in to class late that morning, Delle was told to get an admittance slip from the school office. He left the classroom, and returned with a .357 Magnum revolver. Delle walked to the front of the classroom, announced "Miss, I got what I really went for", put the barrel of the firearm in his mouth, and pulled the trigger before his teacher or classmates could react.2 Lisa Moore, a schoolmate, knew Jeremy from the in-school suspension program: "He and I would pass notes back and forth and he would talk about life and stuff," she said. "He signed all of his notes, 'Write back.' But on Monday he wrote, 'Later days.' I didn't know what to make of it. But I never thought this would happen."2 When asked about the song, Vedder explained: The other story that the song is based on involved a student that Vedder knew from his junior high school in San Diego, California. He elaborated further in a 1991 interview: Release and receptionedit While the "Jeremy" single was released commercially to international markets in 1992, the commercial single was not released in the United States until June 27, 1995 and was only available as a more expensive import version beforehand. "Jeremy" was released as a single in 1992 with the previously unreleased B-sides "Footsteps" and "Yellow Ledbetter", both of which can also be found on the compilation album, Lost Dogs (2003), the former as an alternate version, and the latter of which can also be found on the band's greatest hits compilation, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003). "Jeremy" became the most successful song from Ten on the American rock charts. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts. The "Jeremy" single has been certified gold by theRIAA.10 At the 1993 Grammy Awards, "Jeremy" received nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Hard Rock Performance.11 Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Canada, the song reached the top 40 on the CanadianSingles Chart. "Jeremy" reached the UK Top 20. It peaked at number 93 in Germany, reached the top 40 in New Zealand, and was a top ten success in Ireland. Chris True of Allmusic said that "Jeremy" "is where Pearl Jam mania galvanized and propelled the band past the 'Seattle sound' and into rock royalty." He described it as a "classic buildup tune" and proclaimed it as "arguably Pearl Jam's most earnest work and one of their most successful singles."12 Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media said, "'Jeremy' is for the most part Freudian psychodrama on an album full of them."13 In March 2009, "Jeremy" was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band series as a master track as part of the album Ten.14 Music videoedit Original videoedit In July 1991, Vedder became acquainted with photographer Chris Cuffaro. Vedder suggested Cuffaro film a music video for the band. On Vedder's insistence, Epic gave Cuffaro permission to use any song off Ten. He chose "Jeremy", which was not intended to be released as a single at the time.15 Epic refused to fund the clip, forcing Cuffaro to finance it himself.16 Cuffaro raised the money by taking out a loan and selling all of his furniture and half his guitar collection. He first filmed several scenes of a young actor, Eric Schubert, playing the part of Jeremy. Cuffaro and his crew spent a day filming Schubert playing the part of Jeremy. The scenes with Pearl Jam were filmed in a warehouse on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, California on October 4, 1991. A revolving platform was rigged at the center of the set, and the members of the band climbed on it individually to give the illusion of the song being performed as a crew member spun the giant turntable by hand. Vedder appeared with black gaffer's tape around his biceps as a mourning band for the real Jeremy. Official videoedit By the time Cuffaro finished his music video, Epic had warmed up to the idea of releasing "Jeremy" as a single. Music video director Mark Pellington was brought in to handle the project.17 Pellington said that he "wasn't a huge fan of the band, but the lyrics intrigued me—I spoke to Eddie, and I really got connected to his passion."18 Pellington and Pearl Jam convened in Kings Cross, London, England in June 1992 to film a new version of the "Jeremy" music video.19 Working with veteran editor Bruce Ashley, Pellington's high-budget video incorporated rapid-fire editing and juxtaposition of sound, still images, graphics and text elements with live action sequences to create acollage effect. Actor Trevor Wilson portrayed Jeremy. Wilson filmed his classroom scenes as Jeremy at Bayonne High School in New Jersey.20 The video also featured many close-ups of Vedder performing the song, with the other members of Pearl Jam shown only briefly. Some of the stock imagery was similar to the original video, but when it came to the band Pellington focused on Vedder. Vedder thus serves as the video's narrator. Ament said, "It was mostly Mark and Ed’s vision. In fact, I think it would have been a better video if the rest of the band wasn’t in it. I know some of us were having a hard time with the movie-type video that Mark made, because our two previous videos were made live."6 The video premiered on August 1, 1992,17 and quickly found its way into heavy rotation on MTV. Michele Romero of Entertainment Weekly described the music video as "an Afterschool Special from hell." She stated that "when Eddie Vedder yowls the lyric 'Jeremy spoke in class today,' a chill frosts your cranium to the point of queasy enjoyment."21 The success of the "Jeremy" video helped catapult Pearl Jam to fame. Pellington stated, "I think that video tapped into something that has always been around and will always be around. You're always going to have peer pressure, you're always going to have adolescent rage, you're always going to have dysfunctional families."22 The video won four MTV Video Music Awards in 1993, including Best Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Best Direction.4 Trevor Wilson appeared with Pearl Jam onstage when they won 'Best Video Of The Year.' Vedder introduced him to the crowd: "This is Trevor. He lives." Video summaryedit In the climactic scene of the music video, Jeremy's classmates recoil in horror after he shoots himself in front of them. Director Mark Pellington stated that "Probably the greatest frustration I've ever had is that the ending the "Jeremy" video is sometimes misinterpreted as that he shot his classmates."22 In Pellington's video, Jeremy is shown being taunted by classmates at school, running through a forest, and screaming at his parents at a dinner table. Jeremy is the only character that actually moves throughout the video (although the teacher moves as Jeremy tosses the slip to her towards the end of the video). Most of the other characters in Jeremy's life are in stationary tableau. Shots of words such as "problem", "peer", "harmless", and "bored" frequently appear onscreen. Also, the phrase "the unclean spiritentered" derives from Mark 5:13, while "Genesis 3:6" is a biblical quote which references the creation of sin, specifically Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge and giving some of the fruit to Adam. As the song becomes more dense and frenetic, Jeremy's behavior becomes increasingly agitated. Strobe lighting adds to the anxious atmosphere. Jeremy is shown standing, arms raised in a V (as described in the lyrics at the beginning of the song), in front of a wall of billowing flames. Jeremy is later shown staring at the camera while wrapped in a US flag, surrounded by fire. The final scene of the video shows Jeremy striding into class, tossing an apple to the teacher and standing before his classmates. He reaches down and draws back his arm as he takes a gun out of his pocket. The gun only appears onscreen in the unedited version of the video. The edited version cuts to an extreme close-up of Jeremy's face as he puts the barrel of the gun in his mouth, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger. After a flash of light the screen turns black. The next shot is a pan across the classroom, showing Jeremy's blood-spattered classmates, all completely still, recoiling in horror. A blackboard, where all the harsh terms and phrases had been scrawled, is shown dangling presumably where Vedder had been singing. Controversyedit MTV restrictions on violent imagery prevented Pellington from showing Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger at the climax of the video.22 Ironically, the ambiguous close-up of Jeremy at the end of the edited video, combined with the defensive posture of Jeremy's classmates and the large amount of blood, led many viewers to believe that the video ended with Jeremy shooting his classmates, not himself.22 Pellington himself dismisses this interpretation of the video.22 He said, "Probably the greatest frustration I've ever had is that the ending the "Jeremy" video is sometimes misinterpreted as that he shot his classmates. The idea is, that's his blood on them, and they're frozen at the moment of looking."22 He had filmed a scene where Jeremy is shown putting the gun in his mouth, but this footage was edited with a zoom effect for the MTV version of the video so the gun was not visible.22 Pellington also filmed a slightly different take of the classroom Pledge of Allegiance sequence. In the MTV version of the video there is a brief shot of Jeremy's classmates making a gesture that could be either the American Bellamy salute or the Nazi Hitler salute; in the original cut of the video this scene is longer. The video is shot in such a way that the camera pan shows the alternate salute while traveling in the opposite direction...left to right as opposed to right to left with the normal hand over heart positioning. Interestingly, the most popular example of this unusual editing device can be seen in the episode "Mirror miror" of the original "Star Trek" series. In that instance, in a flickering moment, we see the vessel, the USS Enterprise, reverse its direction while orbiting a planet. This change is used to illustrate that THIS version of the ship is in an alternate timeline...much like the change of salute possibly demonstrating Jeremy's perceptions of alienation skewing his mental state. After "Jeremy", Pearl Jam backed away from making music videos. "Ten years from now," Ament said, "I don't want people to remember our songs as videos."23 The band did not release another video until 1998's "Do the Evolution", which was entirely animated. In 1996, a shooting occurred at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Washington that left three dead and a fourth injured. The prosecutors for the case said shooter, Barry Loukaitis, was influenced by the edited version of the music video.6[dead link] After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, MTV and VH1 rarely aired the video, and mention of it was omitted in retro-documentaries such as I Love the '90s. It is still available on the internet, on websites such as YouTube. It can also occasionally be seen playing at Hard Rock Cafe locations. The video has been getting airtime on VH1 Classic and MTV Hits programming as of 2006, and is currently in circulation via late night playlists featured on Scuzz. The video was included in MuchMusic's list of the 12 most controversial videos. The reason was because of the topic of suicide, and recent school shootings. The scene of Jeremy with the gun in his mouth was not shown. It was also included on VH1's countdown of the "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s" at number 11,24 with several clips of the video shown, including part of the ending. The uncensored version of the video was shown as part of the retrospective "Pearl Jam Ten Revisited" on VH1 Classic in 2009 prior to the album's re-release, including the shot in which Jeremy puts the gun in his mouth. The uncut version of the video is currently on the video site Vimeo, as of January 30, 2015. Live performancesedit "Jeremy" was first performed live at the band's May 17, 1991 concert in Seattle, Washington at the Off Ramp Café.25 Pearl Jam performed the song for its appearance on MTV Unplugged in 1992. Pearl Jam also performed "Jeremy" at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1992. The band had intended to perform the Dead Boys song "Sonic Reducer", but MTV insisted that it play "Jeremy" since the song's music video was already in heavy rotation. (It had been released after the deadline for that year's awards.) At the end of the intense performance, Vedder managed to sneak in a reference to the Dead Boys song by singing the first line of "Sonic Reducer", "I don't need no ... I don't need no mom and dad."26 Live performances of "Jeremy" can be found on the "Animal" single, the "Dissident"/''Live in Atlanta'' box set, various official bootlegs, the Live at the Gorge 05/06 box set, and the Drop in the Park LP included in the Super Deluxe edition of the Ten reissue. Performances of the song are also included on the DVD Touring Band 2000 and the MTV Unplugged''DVD included in the ''Ten reissue. Track listingedit ; CD (US, Australia, Austria, Brazil, and Germany) and Cassette (Australia and Indonesia) # "Jeremy" (Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament) – 4:49 # "Footsteps" (Stone Gossard, Vedder) – 3:53 #* Recorded live on Rockline on May 11, 1992. # "Yellow Ledbetter" (Ament, Mike McCready, Vedder) – 5:04 ; CD (UK) # "Jeremy" (single version) (Vedder, Ament) – 4:46 # "Yellow Ledbetter" (Ament, McCready, Vedder) – 5:04 # "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 4:55 #* Recorded live on August 3, 1991 at RKCNDY in Seattle, Washington. ; 7" Vinyl (UK) and Cassette (UK) # "Jeremy" (single version) (Vedder, Ament) – 4:46 # "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 4:55 #* Recorded live on August 3, 1991 at RKCNDY in Seattle, Washington. ; 7" Vinyl (The Netherlands) # "Jeremy" (Vedder, Ament) – 4:49 # "Footsteps" (Gossard, Vedder) – 3:53 #* Recorded live on Rockline on May 11, 1992. ; 7" Vinyl (US) # "Jeremy" (single version) (Vedder, Ament) – 5:18 # "Alive" (Vedder, Gossard) – 5:40 ; 12" Vinyl (UK) # "Jeremy" (Vedder, Ament) – 4:46 # "Footsteps" (Gossard, Vedder) – 3:53 #* Recorded live on Rockline on May 11, 1992. # "Alive" (live) (Vedder, Gossard) – 4:55 #* Recorded live on August 3, 1991 at RKCNDY in Seattle, Washington. Chart positionsedit Accoladesedit The information regarding accolades attributed to "Jeremy" is adapted in part from AcclaimedMusic.net.35 Category:1992 singles